Episode 42 | What’s in a name?

Welcome to Episode 42, “The answer to life, the universe and everything.”

This week, we’ve tried a quick fire episode that gets to the heart of the issue.

So without further ado, we’re talking about what’s in a name? Are Customer Support and Customer Success the same thing?

On the menu:

Conor: Second breakfast! An amazing vegan breakfast sandwich.

Lisa: Forgotten what Lisa had for breakfast last week? Find out here.

We talked about our job titles and whether or not we actually use them when referring to our jobs.

Lisa isn’t a Success Coach, but she is a Success Champion. (Spoiler: Conor is a Success Coach). Neither use their actual job titles when explaining their jobs.

Lisa finds her role so varied that it’s hard to pigeon it into one hole – with customer support, troubleshooting technical issues (like CSS, blergh!) and customer onboarding (sales and marketing) all being part of her day-to-day.

Conor thinks that pretty much sums up Customer Success. Do you agree? Lisa thinks of Success as a more Proactive approach to customer support.

Conor proposes that in Customer Success, you are going beyond what the customer is directly asking for. You’re understanding the customer and how they use the product, then giving them the best resources and support to allow them to make the most out of the product.

We mused about if we like the term “Customer success” because Customer Support is just a dirty word? Conor votes to try and reclaim “Customer Support” from the clutches of a bad reputation.

Lisa feels that Customer Support often falls under the category of a necessary evil, a cost-centre that doesn’t make you any money. Whereas Customer Success is often seen as an exercise in generating revenue.

Are these two sides of the same coin? Or blatant bias?

We discuss what impact Customer support can make beyond the basics.

We talk about our titles and what our customers think of them – do they care what we’re called?

We think that people just want us to solve their problems, they don’t want to know what our title is. However, it does matter to those of us who work in Customer Support. Or internally, within the company.

Conor reminisced on Sarah’s experience with a customer who took an immediate dislike to Timely’s “Techbot” terminology. Beep-beep-boop.

Buffer recently made the change from Happiness Hero to Customer Advocate. Something that Åsa, their Director of Customer Success, wrote about over here.

We love Dave’s new title as it helps to clarify their role and align themselves with the customer.

Lisa reminds us that we all have something to learn from others.

Do people generally think that Customer Support and Success roles, or any customer facing roles, are less valuable than other positions within a company. Does the pay reflect the work we have to do, or the value we add?